Sweetheart Roland

There was once a woman who was a real witch. She had two daughters: one was ugly and wicked, and this one she loved because she was her own child. The other was beautiful and good, and this one she hated because she was her stepdaughter.

The stepdaughter once had a pretty apron. The ugly daughter wanted it so badly that she became jealous. She told her mother, "I must have that apron!" "Be quiet, my child," said the old witch. "You shall have it. Your stepsister has deserved to die for a long time.

Tonight when she is asleep, I will come and cut her head off. But you must lie on the far side of the bed, and push her to the front." The poor girl was standing in a corner and heard everything. All day long she did not dare to go outside.

When it was bedtime, the witch's daughter got into bed first to lie on the far side. But when she was asleep, the stepdaughter gently pushed her to the front and took the place at the back, close to the wall. In the night, the old witch came creeping in.

She held an axe in her right hand and felt with her left to see if anyone was lying on the outside. Then she grasped the axe with both hands and cut off her own child's head.

When she had gone away, the girl got up and went to her sweetheart, who was called Roland. She knocked on his door. When he came out, she said, "Listen, dearest Roland, we must flee at once. My stepmother wanted to kill me, but she struck her own child.

When daylight comes and she sees what she has done, we are lost." Roland said, "I advise you first to take her magic wand, or we cannot escape if she pursues us." The maiden fetched the magic wand.

She also took the dead girl's head and dropped three drops of blood on the ground: one in front of the bed, one in the kitchen, and one on the stairs. Then she hurried away with her lover.

When the old witch got up the next morning, she called her daughter and wanted to give her the apron. But she did not come. So the witch cried, "Where are you?" "Here, on the stairs, I am sweeping," answered the first drop of blood.

The old woman went out, but saw no one on the stairs. She cried again, "Where are you?" "Here in the kitchen, I am warming myself," cried the second drop of blood. She went into the kitchen, but found no one.

Then she cried again, "Where are you?" "Ah, here in the bed, I am sleeping," cried the third drop of blood. She went into the room to the bed. What did she see there? Her own child, whose head she had cut off, bathed in her blood.

The witch flew into a rage. She sprang to the window, and since she could look far out into the world, she saw her stepdaughter hurrying away with her sweetheart Roland. "That will not help you!" she cried.

"Even if you have gone a long way, you shall not escape me!" She put on her seven-league boots, in which she could walk an hour's journey in one step. It was not long before she caught up with them.

But the girl saw the old woman striding toward them. She used her magic wand to change her sweetheart Roland into a lake and herself into a duck swimming in the middle of it. The witch stood on the shore and threw bread crumbs in, and tried every trick to lure the duck.

But the duck would not be lured. At night, the old woman had to go home just as she came. Then the girl and her sweetheart Roland became their normal shapes again, and they walked all night until daybreak.

Then the maiden changed herself into a beautiful flower that stood in the middle of a briar hedge, and her sweetheart Roland into a fiddler. Soon the witch came striding up and said to the musician, "Dear musician, may I pick that beautiful flower?" "Oh yes," he replied, "I will play while you do it." As she quickly crept into the hedge and was about to pick the flower (for she knew very well who the flower was), he began to play.

Whether she wanted to or not, she had to dance, for it was a magical dance. The faster he played, the more violently she had to jump. The thorns tore her clothes off her body and pricked her until she bled.

He did not stop, and she had to dance until she fell dead on the ground.

When they were free, Roland said, "Now I will go to my father and arrange the wedding." "Then I will stay here and wait for you," said the girl. "So that no one recognizes me, I will change myself into a red stone landmark." Roland went away, and the girl stood like a red landmark in the field and waited for her beloved.

But when Roland got home, he fell into the snares of another woman. She persuaded him so much that he forgot the maiden. The poor girl stayed there a long time. When he did not return at all, she grew sad and changed herself into a flower.

She thought, "Someone will surely come this way and trample me down."

But it happened that a shepherd kept his sheep in the field. He saw the flower, and since it was so pretty, he picked it, took it home, and put it in his chest. From that time on, strange things happened in the shepherd's house.

When he got up in the morning, all the work was already done. The room was swept, the table and benches were cleaned, the fire was lit, and the water was fetched. At noon when he came home, the table was set and a good dinner was served.

He could not understand how this happened, for he never saw anyone in his house, and no one could have hidden there. He was pleased with this good care, but in the end he became so afraid that he went to a wise woman and asked for advice.

The wise woman said, "There is magic behind this. Listen very early one morning to see if anything is moving in the room. If you see anything, whatever it is, throw a white cloth over it. Then the magic will stop."

The shepherd did as she said. The next morning at dawn, he saw the chest open and the flower come out. Swiftly he jumped toward it and threw a white cloth over it. At once the enchantment ended, and a beautiful girl stood before him.

She admitted that she had been the flower and that until now she had done his housework. She told him her story. He was pleased with her and asked if she would marry him. But she said no, because she wanted to stay faithful to her sweetheart Roland, even though he had left her.

However, she promised not to go away but to keep house for the shepherd.

Now the time came when Roland's wedding was to be celebrated. According to an old custom in the country, all the girls were to be present and sing in honor of the bridal pair. When the faithful maiden heard this, she grew so sad that her heart felt like breaking.

She did not want to go, but the other girls came and took her. When it was her turn to sing, she stepped back until she was the only one left. Then she could not refuse.

But when she began her song, and it reached Roland's ears, he sprang up and cried, "I know that voice! That is my true bride. I will have no other!" Everything he had forgotten, everything that had vanished from his mind, suddenly came back to his heart.

Then the faithful maiden celebrated her wedding with her sweetheart Roland. Grief came to an end, and joy began.